Projects run by the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute across Orkney are highlighted in a new initiative focusing on the value of community heritage in the islands.
Living Orkney’s Community Heritage (LOCH) is a series of webinars looking to support the heritage centres in the county’s islands. The project is a collaboration between the North Isles Landscape Partnership Scheme (NILPS) and Rebecca Marr and Mark Jenkins of Kolekto
The first session, delivered by Katy Firth of the Stromness Museum, looked at “Ways of engaging your local audience”. Rebecca and Mark explored “Creative ways of working with collections” by touring through some of the projects they have been involved with where the creative process has been central.
These projects included work by the UHI Archaeology Institute’s Dan Lee with Hoy Heritage and the Hoy Max walk, the Rackwick survey along with the Listening to the Piers Project with Stromness Museum and the Rousay Summer Club hogboon project and film, with Ally Keir, a former University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute PhD student).
Dan said: “It’s great to see our projects being used in wider teaching and good practice guides such as this. We take an interdisciplinary approach to our community archaeology projects and it is good to see how this can contribute to wider fields of practice.”
Future LOCH events include Lucy Gibbon of Orkney Library and Archive on “Working with archive material” and Rob Macgregor of Voluntary Action Orkney on “Working with volunteers”.
A live discussion session on “Creative ways of working with collections” will take place, via the Zoom video-conferencing app, tomorrow, Thursday, November 12, at 3pm. Contact hello@kolekto.co.uk for details of how to participate.
